Identity
by BlackShadow875
Summary: He had always believed that once he would be freed, revenge would be the only thing on his mind. But when that day came, it seemed that getting Danny was merely only the beginning...
1. Time Riff

_A/N: Hello. I decided to start another story...one that I swear I'll try to update every once in a while. I actually feel that I can keep this one going on...this concept has been in my head for quite some time. I hope you all enjoy it._

_Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is owned by Mr. Butch Hartman. If I owned it, I would devise some plan to somehow bring out those new episodes faster..._

_Chapter 1..._

_**Chapter 1 - Time Riff**_

...The flow of time...

It never speeds up or slows down, and yet people are forever believing that its speed seems different for them in different circumstances. They find that sometimes it can always be of the essence, they no longer have enough of it, or in rare circumstances, even too much of it.

And yet time flows at the same speed every day, each monotonous, yet precious, ticking of a second passing by every moment.

For those free to roam, each second doesn't seem to matter unless they are built up into those units we call minutes and hours. Sometimes they can work in our favor; sometimes they are cruel reminders that we will never get these moments back.

And for those unfortunate souls that are trapped, every single second seems to pass like an eternity...

Deep into a dark abyss, where clouds were green, endless doors leading to dimensions floated in the air, and the undead roamed around the zone as if there wasn't anything special about their existence in a spectral sense, was a prison.

But it wasn't an everyday prison that housed all kinds of criminals. In fact, it only housed one person...

The container seemed old with age, even though it was still relatively new. It was covered with rust, the handle was falling off, and its original silver metallic sheen was fading to lusterless grey. And the canister was mottled with endless dents all around it, misshaping its original formation as a cylinder.

But the factor behind these dents were not an indication of anyone accidentally dropping the container on the ground, nor bumping it into something, causing it to dent from the outside.

They came from _within_, the telltale sign of an attempt of trying to punch a way out.

This certain prisoner had to bear a small prison of such magnitudes, and it seemed that he had lost track of time all together. He didn't even know long he had been trapped in this cage, so every day it was just a matter of hopelessly trying to escape from it, even if he was constantly watched.

During his confinement, all he could think about was how it all went wrong...he was so sure that he could determine everything he had hoped to accomplish.

But the barrier that he encountered along the way was something he had never expected it to be.

How his current situation of being trapped in here was possibly beyond the belief of one's notion of time. Most would believe that time's flow could never be altered - what happened in the past stayed in the past.

This, however, was wrong. This person _had _found a way back to the past...just to see if he could fulfill his own existence that he would be there in the future.

He was sorely mistaken.

By going to the past, he ended up destroying his future. Someone in the past had ended up defeating him at the last second and capturing him in this prison, currently eliminating him from time's existence.

So how could his past counterpart still be living at this point, if he was here, outside of time?

The answer was chilling: his younger counterpart had to die in order for him to exist.

Yes, he was a maniacal ghost, bent on revenge to the person who destroyed his future.

And what really annoyed him the most was not the desire for revenge, but knowing who the person who put him in this predicament.

His younger self, not a full ghost like himself, but what his kind called a half-ghost.

His name was Danny. A fourteen-year old kid who accidentally gained ghost powers when a spark accident in his parents' ghost lab occurred. A machine caused his DNA to mix with a ghost, turning him into the half-ghost that he knew all too well. His younger self believed that if there was a purpose for these powers, then it would have to be the fact that he would maintain the balance of escaping ghosts and keep them in the Ghost Zone.

So for about a year, Danny accepted these powers, even discovering new ones in the process, to help protect his home before everything got out of hand. It was sort of like his side-job as a hero.

But of course, there was something about that DNA that Danny could not foretell. Every day he felt that his becoming stronger was due to the fact of these new powers he was gaining.

Once again, it wasn't true. The true intentions of the ghost were just merely surfacing behind these new powers.

Despite Danny's wanting for ghosts and people to coexist, what was stirring inside him were the beginnings of the creation of the one ghost that begged for true power...

Soon, it grew to a point where it started tapping into Danny, reading all his emotions, reading his host like a book...knowing all of his hopes, dreams, fears...

The evil ghost trying to break free...was Dan Phantom.

The one currently trapped inside of the thermos.

After some time passed, Dan soon tried devising a way to escape from his young host. All hope seemed lost until he figured out the stress that the younger Danny was always going through.

Homework.

A big test, the C.A.T, was the one thing that could determine the future of the students later in life.

Dan knew that sometimes whenever his young host got angry, he would take his frustrations out on the nearest ghost he could see. Danny's anger was the food that Dan fed upon to grow stronger. It would soon build up to enough anger before finally he could release himself...and start on his quest to find the power he desired.

He knew that Danny would try to cheat on the test...but that simply wouldn't lead to his eventual existence. It was merely a trigger...friends and family would find out about it and then when they would continually question him about it, he would soon turn defensive and angry...

...Just the sustenance Dan needed to rise out.

Through Danny's eyes, he knew of the destructive properties of the Nasty Sauce developed by the Nasty Burger. When they were all around him at once, he suddenly came out of hiding, fastened them to one of the sauce ducts, and heated it.

Danny, unaware of the situation because he was being controlled by the ghost that he had inadvertently helped nurture, did not know what was going on until finally Dan slipped behind the shadows of his humanity, just enough time for Danny to see the final few seconds of his friends, family, and teacher get killed in an explosion that he did not even know he started.

There were no witnesses.

Danny found himself alone and distraught, unknowing of what to do. Figuring that the explosion was his fault, even though he had no idea what happened, he cursed himself for not being able to save them and wanted to end it all.

Dan knew, at this point, his plan was a success.

Danny travelled to Wisconsin and met ghost expert (and secretly half-ghost) Vlad Masters, the one person that Dan was wanting to see. With his powers combined with his own, he would be unstoppable.

Masters honored Danny's wishes of no more human emotion...and using his new-found technology, ripped Dan right out of Danny using a pair of gauntlets.

Dan was now free of his host forever. In his glee, he attacked the man who helped free him and stole the gauntlets back. Putting them on, he ripped the ghost out of Vlad.

Then, merging with that ghost that he had wanted to overshadow so much, he soon gained all the power necessary he needed. With the incredible feeling surging through him as the full ghost he now was, he then disposed of younger Danny in another violent explosion.

He would go on to rule the future.

But unfortunately for him, outsiders, who controlled time itself, knew of his intentions...and were trying to devise ways to stop it.

Their plan was to kill Danny before it ever started.

Dan got wind of the situation and accessed their technology to go back in time so that he could save his young host and make sure that his future would stay the same.

Unfortunately...the plan to kill Danny was a farce, and it ended up leading to a point where Danny soon realized the evil inside of him and had to destroy it. Danny decided to meet his futuristic half head-to-head to stop it from occurring.

After a long fight, Danny succeeded - barely. Finally trapping Dan inside a thermos, he removed him from time's flow and started another timeline.

And here Dan currently was, sitting inside this device of solitary confinement. How he was able to do it, he would never know. As the futuristic version of himself, he was supposed to succeed...not him.

_"That power..."_ he thought, replaying the defeat over and over in his head. _"It took me ten years to learn that. How the hell could he have learned it before he even turned 15?!"_

His rage, building on the lines of injustice, completely overwhelmed him as he continuously beat against the walls against his prison in agony, trying anything to escape.

There was almost no use...even for a simple thermos, it was a surprisingly strong piece of metal.

But he knew eventually that he would be freed from this thing...it was only a matter of time.

He would gain the status that he once had before he had fallen...

And he would get his revenge...

_A/N: How about a review? Keep flames to yourself, please._


	2. The Separation

_A/N: Yeah, I know. A month isn't exactly what I was planning either, when the waiting process was concerned._

_This should be entertaining, hopefully. I know this will completely seem OoC for many DP fans, but bear with me...the sharp-minded will figure things out._

_Enjoy._

_**Chapter 2 - The Separation**_

He was panting, running...gasping for breath...

_"I hate my life...I hate my life..."_

The hated one in question was currently sweating like a madman. He did not know how he ever got into this predicament, but here he was, running for his life through what seemed like a war-torn wasteland. Running into the remains of what looked like a recently bombed building, he paused a second in its shadows to take a quick breath.

He had been running for so long...who knew how long he had been on the run?

He had no clue. But then again, would he really have any reason to _want_ to know?

Wiping away some of the sweat beading on his face, he peered over the edge of what looked like the remains of a brick wall.

Despite the facts that he could hear shots getting fired in every direction and the wails of the victims that got hit by them, he saw, luckily, that no one was behind him. He had successfully evaded them.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he knew he was safe, for the moment...

Looking around at his surroundings, he figured that this was the best spot to set up camp for the moment. In his exhausted state, it seemed that there wasn't anything else that he could do at that time.

Taking into his surroundings into better detail, the ground dust had some strange ongoing patterns from vibrations and shockwaves of explosions all around him at once, and yet it was still the quietest spot he had found so far.

It used to be peaceful, but then again, some strange incident happened that turned the whole situation into some full-blown out war.

A war where he was one of the unfortunate to be put out into the front lines.

His mouth feeling exceptionally dry, he looked in his pack for something to drink. Pulling out a half-finished water bottle from his pack, he literally gulped down the contents in less than three seconds. Searching around to see if he had anymore, he was irritated to see that it was his last bottle. Disgusted, he threw the empty plastic bottle away from himself.

To further add additional problems to his current state, he also had nothing to eat, as well as he looked further inside his pack. Finding it to be nothing more than a burden of extra weight, he was thinking of throwing it away as well, but then decided to keep it in case he ever found anything else.

Well, that is, if he _lived_ to find anything else...

While he was here, he decided to check on his remaining arsenal. He had only two guns, with one being a rifle that he was completely out of bullets for. His other gun was a small pistol he held in his pocket. Pulling the gun out of his pocket, he wondered how many shots he had left as he opened the case. He was horrified to discover that he had only ten bullets left.

He couldn't believe it..._ten shots_ to save his life. And with a _pistol_ for crying out loud! Who knew how much time he had left before the inevitable happened?

He knew that he should have never done this in the first place. He got separated from his group, and now he was, all alone, with only ten shots in his gun to save his life.

Quickly whipping out the radio in his other pocket, he paged his mates...heck, _anyone_, to see if they could hear him.

"Guys!" he yelled. "This is Danny! Do you copy?"

Taking his hand off the button, he nervously waited for someone to answer.

When no one answered, he began to panic. His voice sounded a bit more desperate as he shouted once again, "HEY! Anyone there?"

Nothing.

Danny put the radio back in his pocket. Figuring that he was probably doomed to die in this place anyway, he looked over the walls to see if there was still no one following him. A blur on the smoky horizon forced him to take out his binoculars.

Unfortunately, he saw his to-be captors walking through the shrouded mist slowly. Panicking even more, he thought that they had tracked him down, but from the looks of their faces, they were all in confusion, searching with their bare eyes to see if they could locate him.

His first instinct to take the gun out of his pocket to see if he could snipe at them from the distance, but then reneged when he realized that he only had ten shots left, and there were five of them. And firing even one shot would easily give away his location. He was destined with the fate of being faced with a choice of fight or flight.

But even the second choice would only go so far. In his weakened state, and far away from nearby help, he'd just get exhausted once again, and it would be a simple walk and shoot for his captors.

It didn't take a genius to see that either way, he was screwed.

He was about to give up. Perhaps if he could just surrender, then maybe he could end up...

Suddenly the thought sizzled out of his head faster than he took to think about it, as he then slapped himself in the face.

Join the other side? He couldn't do that! That would be the ultimate betrayal!

But one vs. five with limited ammo? That was also reaching some pretty high orders...

_"Good God..."_ he thought. _"Someone...give me some sort of idea here!"_

Raising his arms in what looked like a comical fashion reaching for the heavens, he waited for something to happen.

...And as he expected, nothing occured.

_"Of course..."_ he thought drearily as he once again became immersed in his thoughts. _"I'm going to die here, **(BEEP) **I only have myself to blame for getting separated...nothing can help me **(BEEP)**...and geez, what is that annoying beeping coming from my pocket?"_

Wait a second...

_"The radio?"_ he thought.

He didn't give it a second to spare. Quickly taking the thing out of his pocket, it was as if he heard an actual voice coming from the heavens.

"_...ello?...Hello? Any... there?...Answer me!_"

His heart beating faster, he felt confused as he stared at the device awkwardly in his clenched and shaking fist. He was confused on what to do...to feel...to say...

"_Hello? Danny?_"

...because that person speaking...he could recognize that voice from anywhere!

Pressing a shaky finger on the button, he paged back. "Sam! This is Danny! Can you hear me?"

"_Danny?!_" yelled the familiar girl's voice at the other end. "_I can't believe it...you're alive?_"

"Barely," he said. "I'm somewhere north, in a bombed-out building...where are you?"

"_I don't know..._" she paged. "_I haven't seen Tucker, either._"

That sentence made him freeze for a second. "_Wait a minute..._" he thought. "_Tucker...I thought he was..._"

Suddenly a voice from the distance yelled out loud enough for him to hear. "Hey, guys! I heard something coming from this building over here!"

"_Oh, crap!_" he thought. He had been talking too loud...they probably knew exactly where he was...

The thing that he had been hoping to work was now causing his downfall. And he knew that there was only one last thing left he could do...

It was an extremely tricky plan...and also a very risky one. But there was no other way.

His plan started automatically, as he forced himself into it. "Sam..." he paged back in a scared tone, as if it were the last time he would ever talk to her. "I...gotta go..."

"_Gotta go?!_" he heard. He then could sense that air of silence at the other end as he knew that slowly, but surely, the girl could determine what was happening. "_Oh no...Don't tell me you're under attack..._"

"Yes, it looks like it..." he said, a bit of sarcasm hiding in his voice. "There's about five people coming towards me coming from the southern end...and I only have about 10 bullets left..."

_"Oh, no you don't!"_ he heard her almost scream on the other end of the transmission. _"If you're doing what I think you're going to do, don't do it...you might get caught -"  
_

"They already know I'm here!" he whispered into the microphone. "And with you talking as loud as you are, they'll find me faster!"

"Well," said a voice behind him, followed by the click of some gun. "As loud as you are, I don't think that finding you would have been a difficult situation, anyway."

Danny froze in terror.

"Now put your hands up, where I can see them. And drop that stupid radio."

Everything became a standstill as he did what he was told. Loosening his grip, he watched in literally slow motion as the radio fell from his hand onto the barren earth.

It bounced on the ground softly before landing face-up, right next to the other person.

_"Hello?"_ he heard Sam desperately yell through the microphone. _"What's wrong? HELLO???!!! WHAT'S -"_

A click, followed by a thunderous sound filled Danny's ears as the person behind him permanently disabled the radio with a pistol, sending shards of plastic flying everywhere. He felt his heart sink as he saw the little pieces litter the ground all around him.

"Hey, guys," yelled the man to the others. "He's over here!"

Turning back towards Danny, he said forcefully, "Put down your guns and backpack, now."

He reluctantly did so.

"Heh heh..." snickered his captor. "We've been trying to find you ever since you escaped from that little standoff, and now here you are, chatting your life away with your little girlfriend..."

"She's _not _my girlfriend," Danny said firmly, only to meet face-to-face with the end of the man's gun once again.

"Let's not make this more difficult than it has to be," said his captor. Danny decided it was best not to argue.

Slowly led out of the area, with the gun still pointed at his head, Danny was eventually lead to the other four pursuers, his head pointed down at the ground the entire way.

"Look what I found in the ruins over there!" exclaimed Danny's captor with glee. "It's our little friend from earlier!"

Danny's head jerked up as he found himself staring at four members of the enemy, all of which had slight grins on their faces.

"Ah, yes," said one of them after staring for a bit. "The so-called shady character...we know about you. Just when people think you're caught, somehow you find some bizarre way out of your situation."

"Looks like it's not going to be today," said another. "Put him in cuffs, men."

Danny watched as one man forced his hands behind his back while another put the cold metal shackles around his wrists and ankles. And then he watched as another bound his wrists even further with some rope.

He could only glare back at them.

"Ugh...!!"

He felt the force of what seemed like the tenth hit to his face by the blunt edge of his own pistol. Luckily, he had emptied out the chamber before he had dropped it.

That still wasn't making his situation any better, however.

He was somewhere underground...he wasn't sure of the exact details, but he knew that he had been taken to their territory. He was, of course, a bit afraid, but he could not even supress his ideas of how familiar this setting was. He was tied to a chair in the middle of a dark room where the only light source was a single lightbulb shining above his head.

Groaning, he watched through severely bruised eyes at the five surrounding him. In his exhausted and beaten state, he was wondering if he actually had the will power to pull this whole thing off...

"I told you, once again!" said one of his captors, who was basically having a great time toying with him. "I know you're holding classified information. Who are you, and where is your party striking next?"

Shaking off his pain, his words sounded defiant. "You'd think I'd actually say that?"

The man gave off a hand gesture towards him, and Danny watched as someone from the left kicked him in the rib cage. Another groan of pain exited his mouth as the sheer strength of his misery began sinking in.

"You will, and I'll make you," he said. "Now tell me, _right now_."

"Why should I tell _you?"_

"Now that's an interesting question," said the leader. "I know that you know something, and obviously, because of our differences, you must keep that information classified. But c'mon...I like information apparently as much as you do, and I'm just coming to see that we're at an impass. You won't tell me, and obviously, I'm going to have to do anything to get it out of you."

As soon as the man's words were spoken, he felt another blow, something that felt like a whip, sting across his battered shoulder.

"Now, tell me...will you comply, or will we continue doing this the hard way?"

Danny's word came out softly. "No."

Another blunt hit careened into his face, as he suppressed the urge to show his pain even further in a small yelp.

The negotiator's voice sounded menacing, as Danny watched him pace back and forth. "Perhaps I can sweeten the pot for you," he said. "I swear on my honor, if you can tell me anything, I can assure you will be set free."

Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing. _Set free?_

Completely ruin the entire plan and betray his side? He wouldn't be caught _dead_ doing something like that...

But he wasn't sure how much longer he could take of this whole ordeal.

He faced Danny from a distance from about ten inches away. "What do you say?" he asked.

The kid looked at the other man and could see nothing but anger, seen in his reflection in the other man's eyes. This was not a person to be trusted; it was absolutely no deal. Danny responded by lunging out and headbutting him.

"Think you're a tough guy, huh?" asked the leader. "Well, guess what...we're here to play, too."

Another man kicked Danny's back as he then curled back into a fetal position, clutching his aching body.

"I've got a second thing that could, perhaps, refresh your memory on your situation."

"What are you talking about?" asked Danny, barely able to hold back his winces.

"Smith," said the stranger, motioning someone. "Bring him in."

_"Him?"_ thought Danny.

A sudden opening of a door brought forth a man restraining a wildly-kicking African-American in his grasp.

"Let me _GO!_" yelled the kicking, screaming, young man. "You'll regret this! Let go of me!"

_"Tucker...!"_ thought Danny, as he felt his heart skip a beat.

He was about to yell out his best friend's name, but he knew that he couldn't...that would only mean more things to come. Meaning more demands coming from them in order to save _both_ himself and Tucker...

And his own head was already too much to ask for.

But the bad news was, when Tucker laid his eyes upon his beaten friend in the chair, he did not follow his friend's pattern.

"Danny!" he exclaimed. "No! Don't tell then anyth -"

The man holding him back suddenly covered his mouth, kicked him, and quickly led him out of the room before he could say anything else. "That's enough of you!" he yelled to him.

And Danny soon lost the ideas of his own plan. "Tucker!" he yelled after him in no avail.

He then gasped. Danny knew as soon as he let his friend's name slip that he had made a huge mistake.

Tucker wrestled the man's hand away to yell out one more message before the door closed. "Don't say _anything_, Danny!" he gasped out. "Don't worry about me! Don't tell them _anything!_"

Danny felt as if he would turn murderous at any point. _Dammit...they got him!!_

"Tucker, eh?" asked the man in darkness again as soon as the door closed behind him. "Interesting. You know this person. Somehow I knew that when we captured this person, he would be of some vital clue."

_"Let him go,"_ said Danny, making sure that every syllable was heard.

"Or you'll swear you'll do what?" asked the shadowed negotiator, in a rather singsong voice that irritated Danny's eardrums.

Danny was about to say something, looking at him with everything he had, but then swung his head down in shame. It was pretty pitiful; he had nothing back in retaliation.

"I thought so," he said, now coming up to Danny's face once again. "Now...tell me...for you and your friend's sake...what are you hiding?"

He felt as if he lost the power to speak one word.

"Last chance, _Danny_," said the man. "You with us...or _against us?_"

Danny could say absolutely nothing.

"You have ten seconds to make your decision...or else it's lights out for both you and your little friend."

He heard the sound of what seemed like four guns clicking, and felt each end pointing directly at his head. At the same time, someone drew back the shades blocking a window to an adjacent room to his, showing that Tucker was in the same predicament, but with only one gun at his. Four guns directly positioned at him...and one at Tucker...the only thing he could do now was wait...

"I'm starting...10..."

He could tell...but then again...that would again be betrayal...

"9..."

But of course, he couldn't let Tucker could end up dying as well...no...he couldn't have that happen...

"8..."

Why was this taking so long? It should have worked by now...

"7..."

_"Oh God...I can't end it like this and start this all over again..."_

"6..."

He had to...there wasn't anything else...

"5..."

"ALL RIGHT!!!" he screamed. "I'll tell you what you want...just let Tucker go!"

"NO, DANNY!" he could see Tucker mouthing off in the other room, but unable to hear him.

The man's voice was now cold. "That's not what I want to hear...I want to hear an answer. 4..."

"I'll _give _you your answer! Our base is about a mile south from here, are you happy?"

The negotiator saw right through it. "I know for a fact that there is nothing down there. _3..."_

He was hysterical. "Our base is underground, just like yours. It needs a password for access. And I'll only tell you if you stop this countdown!"

"I'll stop once you tell me. 2..."

And soon enough, Danny couldn't take it anymore. "I'M TELLING YOU, STOP THIS, NOW!!"

"1..."

He wrestled with his restraints like a crazed madman. "NOOOO!!!"

"0..."

And Danny soon lost all sense of mind. In that split second, he felt he had vanished to his own little world, making no distinction to the world around. He felt free of his own self, as soon as he suddenly found himself feeling oddly better about the whole situation. And soon, the final piece slammed everything into place for him.

It was like someone had freed him of his restraints as he felt himself beginning to merge with something again...something that literally felt like home. And lastly, some sort of makeshift voice soon moved him completely away from the scene, filling his head with a voice that sounded soothing...calming, feeling like it was beckoning him.

And it was all extremely familiar...

_"You'll be all right,"_ it said. _"Don't worry...I'm here...you'll be all right."_

The recognizable voice forced him to open his eyes. At first, he seemed to see nothing more than the darkened room he was in. But then Danny's eye blinked once in that time dilation, and soon saw a quick change in scene behind them, and found himself smiling.

"What are _you_ so happy about?" asked the unknown negotiator.

"What I'm so happy about," said an unknown voice behind him, "is that it's about to be light's out for every single one of you."

The unknown voice forced the man to turn around, the other four following in succession.

At first they thought they were hallucinating. But after staring unbelievably at the figure before them, it seemed the joke was on them.

_"YOU?"_ asked the man in disbelief. _"Impossible! You..."_

He turned around to face, and also turn a pointing finger at, the chair that held the imprisoned Danny...but was absolutely baffled and astonished to find it empty, save for the restraints that once held their prisoner down.

"But...you..._how did you...?"_

The new Danny before them decided to speak before they had their own chance to. "How did I do it, you ask? Believe me, it's a pretty complicated process...something I think I shouldn't tell you."

And without further ado, he fired off one of his only ten bullets in their confused stupor, fatally hitting one of them.

It wasn't until he fired off another shot when they finally got their consciousness to respond. "Shoot him!" they yelled. "Shoot!"

An endless, ongoing sound of gunfire sped through the air, all attempting to hit the person standing in the doorway.

Only to discover yet another surprise. The bullets...

...they...had no affect on him?

"What the _hell?_" one of them said. "What the heck is going on here? _How is he doing that?_"

Danny had no explanation for them. He dodged and weaved some gunfire to receive free shots at each of them, paying no attention to their cries as he slowly found the ability to pick them off, one by one, making good use of his extremely limited ammunition. Nothing else seemed to matter to him except revenge.

The room soon became littered with small holes in the wall from all the bullets fired in every possible direction, along with shattered glass from the window.

Soon it was down to nothing but him and the shadowy negotiator, who no longer held the frightening stature he once held when he was looming over Danny, but was now helpless and a bit afraid. He attempted to fire _his_ final rounds of ammunition, but once again found that they weren't having any affect...they somehow seemed to be bouncing, or going_ through_ him...

This made no sense at all..._no sense at all..._

Soon, he was out of bullets, himself. Dropping his now utterly useless weapon, he slowly backed into a corner, cowering, as Danny walked ever closer, towards him.

_"Who are you?"_ he asked, shakily. _"What are you?"_

Danny smiled, as he raised his gun carrying his final bullet.

"Sorry," he said, before releasing it. "I'm afraid that's classified information."

_**BANG.**_

The inevitable seemed to occur before the sound even reached Danny's ears. The person fell before his eyes, and slumped to the ground, lifeless. The overworked gun soon lay smoking, as Danny slowly brought it down to his side before he finally dropped it onto the cold stone floor.

Danny took a second to stare at himself in disbelief at everything he just did. He couldn't believe that he just got rid of them all on his own.

In fact, neither could Tucker, as he then crossed behind Danny and touched him on the shoulder. Danny could only give him an odd smile. Neither really had anything much to say to each other - it just all seemed too out of place...

But then again, anyone who would watch their best friend suddenly go haywire could definitely come across that boundary line. Both faced the open door of the room, still frozen, afraid to leave, and quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

But soon that silence was to be broken. A message box soon appeared on Danny's computer, a sender by the name of FryerTuck.

**FryerTuck: **"Dude, seriously...you freak me out, sometimes."

Danny flushed with embarassment as he typed something back.

**Ghostboy:** "Yeah, I know. Sometimes I get into character with these online virtual reality games _waayyy_ too much..."

Tucker, from another side, felt himself smiling, before he dropped the bomb typing in his next response.

**FryerTuck:** "And...I think you might want to take off your helmet right now..."

Danny froze in terror for the second time, as he came to terms with the many different possibilities that the statement could mean.

**Ghostboy:** "Why? Is it that bad?"

**FryerTuck:** "Take a look for yourself."

He took off his helmet, just to see a crowding of heads of looked like a mix of angry, confused, and slightly agitated faces in the internet cafe. One of them, of course, being Sam, was looking at him with an _"I told you so!"_ expression on her face.

A feeling of uneasiness soon loomed in Danny's stomach, as he slowly started forming a slight smile to the surrounding crowd. An untimely bead of sweat formed on Danny's forehead and trickled down the side of his face as he pulled on his collar and nervously giggled at the same time.

_"Oh boy,"_ he thought. _"This is going to take some kind of interesting explanation_..."

_A/N: Heh heh...still confused? Don't worry. Things will clear up in the next chapter._


End file.
